Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-08-11
Notes Along the WAY.

A long While has elapsed since L mailed
lyou my last. Since then | have trav.
eled over the greater part of North
east Colorado in what is now known
as Logan county. This county used to
be part of Weld county, but was set
off from it few months ago. A brief
description of the county as saw il
Imay be of interest to some of your
readers. And right here let me say
that the part of the county saw may
mot be what some of our readers saw;
that what pleased me may not have
pleased some one else who has travelled
through here, and what did not suit
me might have suited some one else.
The South Platte river runs diagon
Tally through the county from south west
to north east, All along the valley of
this river you will find most of the soil
full of alkali. None OF your readers
but know what the effect of that is.
| We left this valley at Julesburg-
Denver Junction-and travelled south.
For about six or eight miles the country
was billy. AT the end Of this distance
we climed up on the table aud a finer
view never met the gaze of man SO
far as the surface of the earth is con-
cerned. 1t may well be called a table
for it was very nearly as level as our
tables. / do not know the elevation
above the Platte river but should say
it was about 800 feet. This table
stretches south as far as the sandhills
along the south Platte. The eve can
see for miles and not be interrupted by
anythIng except the homes of the
settlers. This region 50 far as the
'lay" of the country is concerned
"caunot be beat" Still there are OBJ
Elections to the country. | will men
ton the one that first presented itself
to me. | wanted to water my team,
stopped at house where there was u
windmill and asked if could get water
and was told no. So many were draw
ing water from there that they did not
have it to spare. We drove on for just
three hours before we came to another
we'll. Here we could have the water
by drawing il. Well, OF course that
was all right, but still it took two of
us at the windlass to draw up a pail
that would hold two patent pals of
water. The well was just 26S feet deep
which was supposed to reach the sur
face of the Platte river. Settlers
hauled water from this we'll six and
eight miles as they could not afford to
sink a we'll of their own. In some
places out here they charge 1925 a
| foot for the first hundred feet aud 81 so
a foot for all lower than that This
includes pump, pipe, etc. The farther
west and south you 20 the shallower
water is, but Il poor man cant do well
aud go 50 deep for water The average
depth as near as could find out would
be about $50 feet In some of tho
draws alkali water may be obtained at
from to Is feet From these wells
a man can make tea and coffee but
needs no milk TO color 1t.
Another objection forced itself upon
me as being Of great Importance. ALI
the farmers were complaining of the
dry weather. They had had no rains
until about July Is, and very little
then. Oats were complete failure;
could not get over a half their seed
back if they Gu: them. Wheat is
claimed to be good il they could get it
but straw so short that they had no
machine to cut it. 1t would average
| about 6 inches IN height. Corn looked
very well for sod Think it will make
something A few pieces on ground
that had been backset looked as well
as corn does in .'Oid Grant County,"
that has been planted on fairly good
| ground Another objection for me. is
there is so much gravel in tho land.
Ono man who came here in March 1887
| told me that he wore out two new har-
rows on the sol aad gravel of 80 acres
of breaking done this spring. You
may all believe as much OF this as you
like. That is what did. Yet there is
great deal of gravel all over tho table
| both in Colorado and Cheyenne county
Neb.
The greatest mystery to me is why
this region should settle up SO quickly
Two years ago there were not twenty
houses in an area Of 80 miles square.
to-day there is hardly vacant piece
of land except railroad land, in all this
section or country, aud IS 5)Ja as you
get out of railroad limits there are only
a few poor claims left. II is said that
nine houses out OF every ton have been
built since the first of last March.
We can, TO certain extent, account
for the rapid settlement south Of rail-
I EOdu HutLS. Luz CtuS3 - Ludl tuo
b. & NJ. are building a road from Hold
ridge to Chyeune City by way Of Ster-
ling. This road runs only few miles
south of the grant Congress made to
the u. z. railroad. These two roads
don't get along together at all. The
b. & NJ. has a road just ontside of the
limits Of the u. p. on the north as well
as the south.
A few words in regard to the work
| on the new railroad aud | will close.
They are pushing the work for all tina
is out; Even go 50 far as to bring men
in by the car load. suppose that we
passed over sixteen hundred teams aud
two thousand men who were working
| along the line east of Sterling In one
cut, which was about one-half a mile
long the contractor told me that there
were over one hundred teams at work.
l (This was the head contractor. He
has $50 miles OF road TO build on this
line. This cut was 60 feet deep It
run through sand hill. The wages
paid to the gang working here exceeded
one thousand dollars day or would
if the contractors Kilpatriek Bros
did not own over thousand teams
that were at work along the line.